Open letter to the speaker of the Lower House of Malaysia

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) believes that the draft Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) should either be rejected or amended by the Parliament of Malaysia.

This law is really prone to abuse and violates international human rights standards.

This is just the unlawful Internal Security Act with another name. Persons may be sent to prolonged administrative detention on security grounds, on a permanent basis, while the draft law also precludes any effective inquiry by the judiciary into the lawfulness of any other aspect of the arrest or detention of persons arrested under this law.

There is a very high threshold that needs to be met to justify the creation of a system of administrative security detention. The government of Malaysia has not shown how the current situation in the country meets this threshold.

EMERLYNNE GIL is international legal adviser for South-East Asia, International Commission of Jurists.